Improvement in shoes



UNITED Y STATES GEORGE C. HOV, OF HAVERHILL, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN SHOES.

Specifica-tion forming part of Letters Patent No. 116,959, dated July 11, 1871.

To all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, GEORGE C. HOW, of Haverk hill, ofthe county of Essex, of the State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Shoes; and do hereby decla-re the same to be fully described in the following speciiication and represented in the accompanying drawing, in which- Figure 1 is a top view; Fig. 2, a side view; and Fig. 3, a longitudinal section of one of my improved shoes, its ribbons being represented as untied.

In carrying out my invention I arrange the instep portion a of the upper so as to pverlap or embrace the two quarters b b, and connect it to each of them or the part c of the upper which is below it by an elastic gore, d. Furthermore, I fasten to each of the parts c ofthe upper a ribbon or gore-covering strip, c, having a width equal to or about equal to the length ofthe gore or its opening, the saine being so that when the two ribbons or strips are turned upward and tied or fastened together they shall cover the gores from view.

The elastic gores enable the instep-covering portion a to Viitclosely or accommodate itself to the instep of the foot of a wearer of the shoe. They also enable the shoe to be put on or drawn off the foot easier than would be the case were the instep portion connected with the rest by inelastic connections. By having the quarters to extend withiuthe instep portion the elastic connections or gores are not in the way of the foot of the wearer, and thereby not likely to do injury thereto or incommode the wearer, as is the case when elastic Vconnections of the instep portion are arranged inside the shoe, and the quarters are carried outside of the said instep portion. A shoe, however, may be made with the instep part of the upper connected with the parts below it by elastic gores, and the quarters may be carried outside of the instep portion and there be provided with fastenings for securing together their ends over suc-h instep portion.

I ain aware that before my invention a shoe has been made with the instep portion of its upper arranged outside of or between the quarters, and connected to the sole by narrow elastic bands or springs that in no respect perform the functions of a gore, such a shoe constituting the subject of the United States patent 106,488. I, therefore, make no claim to such a construction of a shoe.

In my shoe each of the gores serves not only the purpose of a spring, but to close the opening for its reception, and thereby oomposes part of the upper.

-Vhat I claimv as my invention is" as follows:

1. The instep part a of the shoe upper, as connected to the side portions or next adjacent parts of the upper or vamp of the shoe, by elastic gores d d, arranged substantially as described.

2. In a shoe, the instep portion a, arranged to extend outside of and down each of the quarters b b, and connected with the vamp or part of the shoe below such instep portion by elastic gores d d., arranged as set forth.

3. In a shoe, the instep portion a., arrangedto extend outside of and down each of the quarters b b, and connected with the vamp or part c of the shoe below such instep portion by elastic gores d d, as set forth, and having ribbons or gore-coverin g strips e c, arranged with such gores in manner as described.

' 1 GEORGE C. HOW. Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, S. N. PIPER. 

